bad - suspect, mom killed in home invasion robbery

This is a discussion on bad - suspect, mom killed in home invasion robbery within the In the News: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly forums, part of the The Back Porch category; Suspect, Mother Killed In Home Invasion Robbery - News Story - KTVU San Francisco
I checked if this was posted anywhere but it was not.
...

bad - suspect, mom killed in home invasion robbery

The mom was shot while she was lowering her kids to the SWAT van. she eventually died and was pronounced dead in the hospital.

my question is with the mother and kids barricaded why not stick a ladder up to a window and flood the area with officers to prevent this guy from entering and return fire from the barricade room against the perp. or, why not give the mom some body armor to offer some protection? It would seem that the officers know that the victims were barricaded and they had enough time to sorround the house/call the swat team/establish a perimeter. why not assist the victims more directly?

I am not criticizing the SWAT officers but I am curious that there seems to be time for some direct action to extracate the victims or at least offer some ballistic protection but was not done earlier.

Horrible story. The mother was very brave and smart to get those kids out of there. W/ the BG just firing blindly through doors and walls, it was only a matter of time before they all would have been hit. Hopefully there is some comfort in knowing she died protecting her children.

SAN MATEO, Calif. -- A gunman shot and killed 24-year-old Loan Kim Nguyen as she lifted her young children to safety through a window Tuesday morning during a failed home invasion robbery attempt. The gunman was then killed in an ensuing gun battle with responding SWAT officers, according to authorities.

San Mateo police said they received a call from a man at about 9:40 a.m. about an armed robbery underway at a home on Hobart Avenue near South El Camino Real. The caller told police his wife and children -- aged 1 and 3 -- were in the house and had barricaded themselves in a bedroom, police Deputy Chief Mike Callagy said. The man wasn't home at the time, but had received a text message from his wife about the invader, according to officers.

Officers arrived at the scene and set up a perimeter around the house. The male suspect was observed inside the residence with a handgun, according to officers. After a shot was heard fired inside the home, a Special Weapons and Tactics team was summoned. Hostage negotiators were also brought in to attempt contact with the suspect in an effort to get him to surrender, Callagy said.
SWAT officers surrounded the house and were able to get in telephone contact with Nguyen. She reported that the suspect was trying to gain entry into the bedroom where she was barricaded with her children and that she wanted to lower the children out of the bedroom window so officers could get them to safety.

At an early evening press conference to address the incident, San Mateo Police Chief Manheimer said Nguyen was struck as she was lowering her children to officers standing on a van in the driveway of the home when the suspect began firing blindly through the walls of the bedroom.

She said police returned fire as one child was safely taken away. Nguyen handed the second child to an officer before crumpling to floor of the bedroom, Manheimer said.
She was taken to Stanford Hospital, where she was pronounced dead. The children were not harmed.

"The victim in this case is nothing short of a hero for saving the lives of her two small children from the crazed gunman," Manheimer said.
She said it's not clear yet who fired the bullets that killed Nguyen or the suspected intruder. But she said police were not shooting when Nguyen was hit.
San Mateo County Coroner Robert Foucrault said investigators will perform a ballistics comparison to try to answer that question. It is also unclear how the suspect died. Manheimer said suicide has not been ruled out.

The children were uninjured in the incident and Manheimer commended the officers "who at great risk to their own safety and also under fire" saved them.
She said one officer jumped off the top of the van holding one of the children after the suspect began shootofficers may have suffered minor injuries but nothing serious.
Police are still investigating whether the suspect knew the victim or her family. A car was towed from across the street that Manheimer say may be related.
In addition to the criminal investigation by the San Mateo Police Department, the department will conduct an internal investigation into the officers' actions. The District Attorney's Office will also investigate that aspect.

Manheimer said there were several points at which gunfire was exchanged but that the details are still unclear. Officers from eight agencies responded.
Larry Schieser, a real estate agent who works at the nearby Prudential California Realty, said he was having a normal morning at work around 9 a.m. when he saw a couple of police cars.
A steady stream of patrol cars then followed, and a SWAT team arrived.
He said he then heard numerous gunshots.

"Once the shots were fired it became very quiet in our office, surreal almost," he said. "We realized something serious was taking place."
He said he and his coworkers were told to stay inside the office while police investigated.
The home where the shooting happened is across the street from a Montessori preschool called Bright Beginnings Toddler.
Jerry Adan, who answered the phone at the school, said staff members Tuesday afternoon were focused on making sure their preschoolers were OK.

Without being there its difficult to say why LE did what they did. Armchair Qb'ing is always easier than actually operating under stress.
Had the victim been armed the situation may have turned out differently.

Without being there its difficult to say why LE did what they did. Armchair Qb'ing is always easier than actually operating under stress. Had the victim been armed the situation may have turned out differently.

Yeah ! I am always so upset when good people get killed because they don't have the means to defend themselves.
How would the story unfold if the victim had a shotgun ?
A purely defensive strategy is doomed.

Police spokesperson said: "it's not clear yet who fired the bullets that killed Nguyen or the suspected intruder. But she said police were not shooting when Nguyen was hit."

Hmmm. Hard to interpret what that really means happened. Did the victim maybe have a gun? Were she and the intruder hit by police fire? The statement that they were not firing when she was hit suggests the intruder did that. So, how is it unclear.

the mom accounted herself well in this situation. to come up with her own plan of rescuing her kids by lowering them to the officers below was pretty smart. the home invaders are typically the same ethnicity as their victims. Asian gangs are known to invade homes in their neighborhoods.

please don't read this as monday morning quarterbacking but I do have some lingering questions. If I was the husband of this lady, I would ask them of the police dept. This is not really an active shooter situation at the onset but I thought since Columbine doctrine has change in that you don't wait to mass the troops but to enter the building and engage the perps ASAP. as a civvie, if my wife calls me in such a situation, I would be hard press not enter my house and get to my family before BG gets to them - alone if needs be.

I just can't help but think that maybe more timely measures would have prevented this. Ultimately, it is the BG's fault for pulling the trigger. although as lifesavers - police, FF, EMS - we are also responsible for our conduct for dealing with the situation at hand.